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Cigar Shop Etiquitte Issues

MNBrian

MNBrian

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2015
Messages
1,390
Alright, so this might be a pretty obvious one, but I have a question here.

I walked into a local shop with a cuban in hand and asked the shop owner if he had any Opus in stock. I've been to this shop a few times, but since I primarily smoke cc's, I often don't visit local shops for anything but a new illusione release or perhaps the occasional AF.

The shop owner told me due to the new FDA regulation sampling laws, I can't smoke anything in the building that I didn't purchase there. Fine. I don't recall that part of the new FDA rules but sure, I'll just smoke what I bought.

Then I'm on my local facebook group with a few friends and I see one of the shop workers smoking it up with a clear cc? Y'all are a little more experienced smokers than I, so perhaps you can tell me - did I break some unspoken etiquitte rule? Whenever I travel I haven't had this issue. I always tell the shop owner when I walk in that I'd love to support them and buy a stick and I ask if it is okay to smoke one I brought from home and show them the stick. Often they don't take issue with this. One or two times I've been told that wasn't an option and still purchased a stick to support them, but left to smoke elsewhere.

Any insight would be appreciated. I get most shops are going to be different, but any ideas why they'd be throwing the FDA sampling rules around? That's a new one on me...
 
I heard some shops had that rule before but it sounds like some are using it as an excuse. I just went to a shop in the new year, bought some cigars but smoked what I brought with me. Not a word was said even when the saw my full cigar box.
 
FDA angle sounds like a scapegoat. I wouldn't smoke anything in a shop I didn't buy there. Well, I have once or twice. Asking on your way in is certainly courteous enough.
 
There's a bar / restaurant a buddy and I frequent that has a cigar lounge with sticks for sale in a humidor in the lounge. We smoke what we bring with us (as do most cigar lounge patrons), but we always buy food and beverages...and tip well. Never had a problem or an aside glance.

Businesses are there to make money. Smoking in their lounge without some kind of patronage is tacky. Brian, not saying you did that, only making the point.

The FDA statement is nonsense, AFIK. Asking you to only smoke what you buy there is reasonable, but then having an employee smoke a CC is equally tacky. Dunno, my unfortunate experience is that some lounges are very hostile to the new guy. Their loss, long term.....
 
I'm assuming if they don't know you as a regular then they're not going to bend over backwards for you. I'm also assuming that if they did know you as a regular you'd be granted privileges that the odd walk-in customer doesn't get. Same story in other realms. With beer or liquor, you walk in and inquire about a limited release, hard to find bottle. If they recognize you and know you spend some money there, they'll shoot straight. If they don't recognize you they may give you the run around. I'm not saying it's right or fine on their part, just saying that is often the way I find the world works.

I don't often go to cigar shops to smoke since most of them have that rule that you can't bring in any outside cigars. Then again, if I went there more often perhaps they would look the other way. Of course, it could just be a concrete rule of theirs and I get it. I'll just view that shop as a place I may or may not purchase from in the future and nothing else.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Businesses are there to make money. Smoking in their lounge without some kind of patronage is tacky. Brian, not saying you did that, only making the point.

The FDA statement is nonsense, AFIK. Asking you to only smoke what you buy there is reasonable, but then having an employee smoke a CC is equally tacky. Dunno, my unfortunate experience is that some lounges are very hostile to the new guy. Their loss, long term.....
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I definitely always buy at least a stick, often a few when I go into any shop. I'm with you there. My experience has been the same as yours. I've been asked to leave more than one local shop in MN because a) I'm a younger patron so they probably assume I know nothing and b) the high roller crew has entered the shop and they needed my seat.

I agree, businesses are in it to make money. That's why it always confuses me that they're hostile to new people.
 
Is there a charge to use their lounge? If you are paying a lounge fee as it is, and you still purchase a stick or three, I can't see the issue with smoking something you brought in. I mean, it's their rules to do as they please, but I lit up a stick I bought fresh at the shop when I was there a few weeks ago with William (Oke & Coke), and I instantly regretted it. It needed to sit in my humidor and acclimate a while, as it did not burn even and I had a hard time keeping it lit after about the halfway point. I know I wouldn't have had this problem with the other sticks I had in my little herfidor with me that I brought from home. William smoked something he had brought with him and it seemed to smoke just fine down to the end. I'm not ok with spending $8-$12+ on a stick that I know is not going to smoke well immediately. The other option is not smoking there if that's their policy, of course, and as I said, they make the rules...
 
kann said:
.....I lit up a stick I bought fresh at the shop when I was there a few weeks ago with William (Oke & Coke), and I instantly regretted it. It needed to sit in my humidor and acclimate a while, as it did not burn even and I had a hard time keeping it lit after about the halfway point. I know I wouldn't have had this problem with the other sticks I had in my little herfidor with me that I brought from home.....
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This is a very good point. Most B&M's over humidify their sticks to some degree, some are just flat soaking wet. Much better to let them acclimate for a month or two under proper conditions than try to tough it out when they are wet.

Still surprises me how uninformed the majority of B&M employees are.....with attitude to match.
 
You bring in a box of Cuban Montecristos and a Bottle of Pappy 23, to share, and they won't say a word.

Kidding aside, I imagine there are as many reasons as stars.
If you buy in there, and pull out one from home to smoke, that has been long standing etiquette as far back as I can remember, and that is a good 40 years.

There's a whole new breed of cigar store owners, and I've seen some real weiners. Ultimately, their shop, their rules. You can accept it, or find another place that is less neurotic. I don't want to hang out with neurotic, lying, manipulative, jerks.
 
I've been to a place that wouldn't allow anyone to smoke in the lounge unless they had paid for some gold card membership pass. Of course they offers me a day pass for 10 bucks.
 
jbfurdog said:
I've been to a place that wouldn't allow anyone to smoke in the lounge unless they had paid for some gold card membership pass. Of course they offers me a day pass for 10 bucks.
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I think the Davidoff lounge near me gets $50 for a day pass. Don't know what a yearly membership costs.
 
kann said:
I'm not ok with spending $8-$12+ on a stick that I know is not going to smoke well immediately. The other option is not smoking there if that's their policy, of course, and as I said, they make the rules...
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This is my biggest problem. And with the tobacco taxes, $8 at a B&M isn't getting you a whole hell of a lot.

There's no FDA rule, that's what they decided to hide behind.

Before my local lounge completely went to shit, the rules changed everyday. Every time I set foot in there, I bought at least 2 sticks out of the walk in. And his prices were bad. But he was providing me with a space to smoke, so I was fine with it. I heard rumblings about people smoking things they didn't buy there, even though half the "members" had boxes upon boxes of fake Cubans in their lockers. I would buy my sticks, go into the lounge and take the cigar out of my traveldor that I was going to smoke, slip the band off out of sight, and enjoy my time alone.

Shortly after that things started to get even worse there, so I never went back. And it's a damn shame, because it's less than 10 min away.
 
There is a 'local' chain of hotels with bars / restaurants that have smoking lounges. Selling cigars isn't their primary business, which is why I believe the BS level is low to non-existent.....as long as you're a patron of the bar or food services. They got grandfathered in when the laws changed. I hope they remain...I patronize them all I can in support.
 
Brian, you live in the land of 100% taxes so I know it's tough but Buying a cigar from the local B&M is the right thing to do even if you don't smoke it there and then, I think of it like a corkage charge for bringing your own bottle of wine. After all the B&M pays the costs of making your experience possible. I always buy at least one when visiting a B&M.
 
Ja, it's 50% tax here which is why I only really buy B&M when I'm going to the lounge or out with William somewhere. I don't mind supporting the places when I'm there, I just can't afford to buy there on the regular -- I think 3 sticks set me back over $40 that day.
 
As a shop owner I know of some that require you to only smoke cigars bought there in their lounge, that is their prerogative. The rule I have always used is you get something from the humidor here I really don't care what you bring to smoke, since I charge no fees for our lounge I like to see people patronize the humidor. (That is how I keep the doors open...LOL) Lots of folks like to age a cigar before smoking and as long as your buying something here smoke away.
 
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